Scene II.—
1. [He jests,] etc. Referring to Mercutio, whom he has overheard, as the rhyme in found and wound indicates. The Cambridge ed. suggests that in the old arrangement of the scene the wall may have been represented as dividing the stage, so that the audience could see Romeo on one side and Mercutio on the other. Mr. F.A. Marshall thinks that Romeo "merely stepped to the back of the stage at the beginning of the scene, and was supposed to be concealed from the others, not coming out till they had gone. Juliet would appear on the 'upper stage' [the balcony at the back of the Elizabethan stage], which did duty in the old plays for so many purposes."
7. [Be not her maid.] Be not a votary to the moon, or Diana (Johnson). Cf. M.N.D. i. 1. 73.
8. [Sick.] The 1st quarto has "pale," which is adopted by some editors. It has been objected that sick and green is a strange combination of colours in a livery; but it is rather the effect of the colours that is meant. Cf. T.N. ii. 4. 116: "with a green and yellow melancholy." Perhaps, as Dowden remarks, the word green-sickness (see iii. 5. 155) suggested the epithets.
29. [White-upturned.] So Theobald and most of the editors. The early eds. have "white, upturned," which Marshall prefers as better expressing "the appearance of an upturned eye by moonlight."
39. [Thou art thyself,] etc. That is, you would be yourself, or what you now are, even if you were not a Montague; just "as a rose is a rose—has all its characteristic sweetness and beauty—though it be not called a rose" (White). The thought is repeated below in So Romeo would ... that title. The passage would not call for explanation if critics had not been puzzled by it.
46. [Owes.] Possesses; as very often. Cf. M.N.D. ii. 2. 79, Macb. i. 3. 76, i. 4. 10, iii. 4. 113, etc.
52. [Bescreen'd.] Used by S. only here.
58. [Yet not.] A common transposition. Cf. Hen. V. iii. 3. 46: "his powers are yet not ready;" Hen. VIII. ii. 4. 204: "full sick, and yet not well;" Cor. i. 5. 18: "My work hath yet not warm'd me," etc.
61. [Dislike.] Displease. Cf. Oth. ii. 3. 49: "I'll do 't; but it dislikes me." So like = please; as in Ham. v. 2. 276: "This likes me well," etc.
62. [Wherefore.] For the accent on the last syllable, cf. M.N.D. iii. 2. 272: "Hate me! Wherefore? O me! what news, my love!"
66. [O'er-perch.] Used by S. nowhere else.
69. [Let.] Hindrance; as in R. of L. 330, 646, and Hen. V. v. 2. 65. Cf. the verb in Ham. i. 4. 85, etc.
78. [Prorogued.] Delayed; as in iv. 1. 48 below. On wanting of, cf. v. 1. 40 below: "Culling of simples."
83. [As that vast shore,] etc. Possibly suggested, as some have thought, by the voyages of Drake and other explorers to America about the time when S. was writing.
84. [Adventure.] Venture, try the chance. Cf. Cymb. iii. 4. 156:—
"O for such means!
Though peril to my modesty, not death on 't,
I would adventure."
89. [Farewell compliment!] Away with formality! The early eds. have "complement" or "complements," as in ii. 4. 19 below and elsewhere.
93. [At lovers' perjuries,] etc. Douce remarks that S. found this in Ovid's Art of Love—perhaps in Marlowe's translation:—
"For Jove himself sits in the azure skies,
And laughs below at lovers' perjuries."
Cf. Greene, Metamorphosis: "What! Eriphila, Jove laughs at the perjurie of lovers."
99. [Haviour.] Not "'haviour," as often printed. It is found in North's Plutarch and other prose.
101. [To be strange.] To appear coy or shy. Cf. iii. 2. 15 below: "strange love" (that is, coy love).
103. [Ware.] See on i. 1. 121 above.
106. [Discovered.] Revealed, betrayed. Cf. iii. 1. 145 below, where it is = tell, explain.
109. [The inconstant moon.] Cf. M. for M. iii. 1. 25:—
"For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon."
See also L. L. L. v. 2. 212, Lear, v. 3. 19, and Oth. iii. 3. 178. Hunter quotes Wilson, Retorique, 1553: "as in speaking of constancy, to shew the sun who ever keepeth one course; in speaking of inconstancy, to shew the moon which keepeth no certain course."
116. [Do not swear.] Coleridge remarks here: "With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety for the safety of the object, a disinterestedness by which it is distinguished from the counterfeits of its name. Compare this scene with the Temp. iii. 1. I do not know a more wonderful instance of Shakespeare's mastery in playing a distinctly rememberable variation on the same remembered air than in the transporting love-confessions of Romeo and Juliet and Ferdinand and Miranda. There seems more passion in the one, and more dignity in the other; yet you feel that the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of Juliet, and the calmer and more maidenly fondness of Miranda, might easily pass into each other."
117. [Contract.] Accented by S. on either syllable, as suits the measure. The verb is always contráct. See also on i. 4. 103 above.
119. [Like the lightning,] etc. Cf. M.N.D. i. 1. 145:—
"Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up;
So quick bright things come to confusion."
124. [As that,] etc. As to that heart, etc.
131. [Frank.] Bountiful; repeated in bounty. Cf. Sonn. 4. 4:—
"Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free;"
and Lear, iii. 4. 20: "Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all."
139. [Afeard.] Used by S. interchangeably with afraid (v. 3. 10 below).
141. [Substantial.] Metrically a quadrisyllable.
142. [Three words,] etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:—
"In few vnfained woords your hidden mynd vnfolde,
That as I see your pleasant face, your heart I may beholde.
For if you doe intende my honor to defile:
In error shall you wander still, as you haue done this whyle,
But if your thought be chaste, and haue on vertue ground,
If wedlocke be the ende and marke which your desire hath found:
Obedience set aside, vnto my parentes dewe:
The quarell eke that long agoe betwene our housholdes grewe:
Both me and myne I will all whole to you betake:
And following you where so you goe, my fathers house forsake."
143. [Bent.] Inclination; as in J.C. ii. 1. 210: "I can give his humour the true bent," etc.
144. [Send me word to-morrow,] etc. This seems rather sudden at first glance, but her desire for immediate marriage is due, partially at least, to what she has just learned (i. 3) of the plan to marry her to Paris.
151. [Madam!] This forms no part of the verse, and might well enough be separated from it, like the Juliet in i. 5. 145 above. By and by = presently; as in iii. 1. 173 and iii. 3. 76 below.
152. [Suit.] The reading of 4th ("sute") and 5th quartos; the other early eds. have "strife." The expression "To cease your sute" occurs in Brooke's poem, a few lines below the passage just quoted.
153. [To-morrow.] "In the alternative which she places before her lover with such a charming mixture of conscious delicacy and girlish simplicity, there is that jealousy of female honour which precept and education have infused into her mind, without one real doubt of his truth, or the slightest hesitation in her self-abandonment; for she does not even wait to hear his asseverations" (Mrs. Jameson).
157. [Toward school,] etc. Cf. A.Y.L. ii. 7. 145:—
"And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school."
160. [Tassel-gentle.] The tassel-gentle or tercel-gentle is the male hawk. Dyce quotes Cotgrave, Fr. Dict.: "Tiercelet. The Tassell or male of any kind of Hawke, so tearmed, because he is, commonly, a third part less than the female;" and Holmes, Academy of Armory: "Tiercell, Tercell, or Tassell is the general name for the Male of all large Hawks." Malone says that the tiercel-gentle was the species of hawk appropriated to the prince, and thinks that on that account Juliet applies it to Romeo. We find tercel in T. and C. iii. 2. 56: "The falcon as the tercel." The hawk was trained to know and obey the falconer's voice. Cf. T. of S. iv. 1. 196:—
"Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come and know her keeper's call."
For haggard = wild hawk, see Much Ado, iii. 1 36, T.N. iii. 1. 71, etc.
163. [Airy tongue.] Cf. Milton, Comus, 208: "And airy tongues, that syllable men's names," etc.
166. [Silver-sweet.] Cf. Per. v. 1. 111: "As silver-voic'd." See also iv. 5. 124 below: "Then music with her silver sound," etc. The figure is a very common one.
167. [Attending.] Attentive. Cf. T.A. v. 3. 82: "To lovesick Dido's sad attending ear."
171. [I have forgot why I did call thee back.] We know, and she knew, that it was only to call him back, parting was "such sweet sorrow."
178. [A wanton's bird.] Here wanton means simply a playful girl. It is often used in such innocent sense (cf. i. 4. 35 above), and is sometimes masculine, as in K. John, v. 1. 70 and Rich. II. ii. 3. 164.
181. [Plucks it back.] Cf. Sonn. 126. 6: "As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back." See also W.T. iv. 4. 476, 762 and A. and C. i. 2. 131. Pluck is a favourite word with S.
182. [Loving-jealous.] Compound adjectives are much used by S. Cf. i. 1. 79, 176, 178, i. 2. 25, i. 4. 7, 100, etc., above.
189. [Ghostly.] Spiritual; as in ii. 3. 45, ii. 6. 21, and iii. 3. 49 below.
190. [Dear hap.] Good fortune. The 1st quarto has "good hap," which occurs in iii. 3. 171 below.